Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa career ended in the most brutal of fashions.
Just 20 minutes after trudging from the pitch at Craven Cottage with chants of 'Steven Gerrard, get out of our club' ringing in his ears, the axe fell on his time at Villa Park.
Minutes after he was telling reporters that he would fight on after a sickening 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Thursday night, that fight would be over as Villa CEO Christian Purslow - who remained a huge fan of Gerrard from his time at Liverpool - informed him of his fate.